Back Talk Lakewood/East Dallas

CD World out of business

I think I might be more upset over this than state of the national economy — CD World, both the Greenville Ave. and Addison store, has closed. I am one of the guilty ones. I spent many an hour there in the past, adding new tunes to my collection disc by disc, week by week ... but a few years ago, I began downloading my music. So blame me. And others like me.

When Advocate interviewed owner Mike Schoder in March 2008, he indicated things at CD World were progressively faltering. Schoder, who now owns Granada had told us that in 2004 when he bought the Granada, "the retail CD business had started to slide."

At least we still have Good Records and quality acts consistently at the Granada.

Woodrow town hall meeting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 1

If you want to deliver your personal opinion about the DISD budget deficit directly to school board trustee Ron Price, here's your chance: Price is holding a town hall meeting in Woodrow Wilson High School's auditorium Wednesday, Oct. 1, at 6:30 p.m. At the Woodrow SBDM meeting Tuesday night, it was said that Price had been receiving so much "advice" from neighborhood parents that he decided to hold the meeting prior to Thursday's next school board meeting.

Convention center petition drive led by courteous, knowledgeable carpetbaggers

How's the petition drive to bring the convention center hotel to a vote going? Well, I was filling up at a 7-Eleven Sunday when I was approached by someone holding a petition supporting the proposed referendum on the hotel. While signing, I noticed I was number 18 on the page of 20 possible signatures, and the guy soliciting the names picked up two more signatures on different petition sheets just while I was filling up and signing.

I asked the guy if he was a volunteer or being paid; he politely said he was being paid. I asked if there were a lot of people like him in Dallas right now: "Oh, man," he said. "A lot." He then threw out a few details about the hotel project, and everything he said was correct and delivered in a courteous, non-pushy manner. In fact, he approached one woman with a petition, she told him "no thanks", and he told her "thanks" and just kept moving. The guy told me this is what he does professionally, going from city to city soliciting signatures for various referendums: "We were just in Reno, Nevada, getting signatures for a school issue," he said.

It's too bad politics in Dallas has come to this: We can't depend on the people we elect to let us have a say in the big, expensive projects of the day. Instead, we have to depend on someone with a bunch of money to hire people from out of town to give voters a chance to have our say.

Marines expect to run DRC Half — from Japan

Hopefully, in your October issue of Advocate, you read the story about the 30 or so Marines that the Dallas Running Club has adopted as so-called "running mates" in the DRC Half Marathon Nov. 2. One of the men who helped think up the whole idea, 2nd Lieutenant Ryan Bintz, was kind enough to send me this photo of the platoon. (Unfortunately it got here too late to make it into the magazine layout). I think you can get a better look by clicking on the photo. If you want to read the whole story, well, you can't read it on our web site yet as it's getting a makeover ... but I'll place the story after the jump for any of you who didn't get a chance to read it. 

The Swell Season in town last night

I saw an awesome show at the Palladium Ballroom last night, and I know at least some of my music-loving Lakewood neighbors were there because I ran in to a few of you.

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova of The Swell Season mesmerized, and at some points really rocked, the house — the duo is best known for their role in the movie, Once, for which they garnered a best-original-song Oscar for Falling Slowly (video).

Coupon Mommy: Free plays

Coupon Mommy is back. I'm here to let you know what the deal is. Here's a great one--live theater for free. Quick, call the babysitter!

The City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs is offering the first ever Free Night of Theater, to be held from Thursday, October 16 through November 10, 2008. Presented in conjunction with Theatre Communications Group (TCG), Free Night of Theater is offering over 3,000 free tickets to more than 26 Dallas-area theaters. Dallas is one of 120 communities across the country participating in the event.

How can you get FREE tickets? Reserve your tickets through their website, beginning Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at noon. Tickets can only be reserved online and reservations are handled on a first-come, first-served basis. Each participating theater will set a reservation ticket limit for their productions. Once tickets have been reserved through the website, patrons will be able to pick up their tickets at the will-call window of the individual theater's box office on the night of the show.

Participating Local Theaters: African American Repertory Theater, Charles W. Eisemann Center, The Company of Rowlett Performers (C.O.R.P.), Contemporary Theatre of Dallas, Dallas Children's Theater, Dallas Hub Theater, Dallas Theater Center, Echo Theatre, Garland Civic Theatre, ICT MainStage, Jubilee Theatre, Lyric Stage, MBS Productions, One Thirty Productions, Pocket Sandwich Theatre, Repertory Company Theatre, Shakespeare Dallas, Teatro Dallas, TeCo Theatrical Productions, The Black Academy of Arts and Letters, The MET Theatre, Theatre Britain, Theatre Three, Uptown Players, WaterTower Theatre, WingSpan Theatre Company.

Stonewall Jackson's garden endangered by DISD cuts

In an accompanying post about the impact of DISD's budget problems on J.L. Long Middle School, a reader mentioned the Stonewall Jackson Elementary student garden and the problems it's facing as a result of the cuts. It just so happened that last night, a couple of Advocate readers sent an email detailing their pain at what is happening with Stonewall's garden. I thought you might be interested in reading the thoughts of Rachel Buxkamper and Brett Munro ...

Here's what they had to say: "I wanted to share the current turmoil my school is in as an effect of the DISD budget shortfall. Have you ever driven down Mockingbird Lane, heading East past Greenville Avenue toward Abrams Road? Ever noticed the cool old school with the amazing garden next to it and thought, wow, how cool that this public school has a working garden!

Reconstitution and the DISD Budget Crisis: If it's good for the goose....

Let's review for a moment. You may recall the concern last winter when it was announced that Woodrow Wilson High had not performed up to standards for two consecutive years and was to be "reconstituted". This is standard, legally required procedure. The most extreme case has been with Spruce High School, which was closed altogether and its students redistributed throughout the District. That's at the heart of our school accountability programs: If you don't get it right, you get to do something else, maybe somewhere else. And it starts after two under-performing years. Two strikes, not three, and you're out.

There is no equivalent mandate for district administration. Lets recall the P-card disaster and now the financial crisis facing the District. Looks like two strikes to me, which also leads me to think that's where the real changes are needed. 

Urban Reserve development: Rising from the dump off Forest at Central Exp.

It's hard to call a housing development that you can see from Central Expressway "forgotten", but that's kind of what happened with the Urban Reserve single-family development for modern-home designs. But lo and behold, David Dillon in the Morning News writes that half of the development's 50 lots have been sold, six have homes already built and another dozen homes are under construction. The project has lots of "green" aspects, seems to be designed around minimizing damage to the environment and boasts some unique architecture for Dallas. The next time you're in the neighborhood, it's worth detouring briefly to drive through the neighborhood. And if you don't have time for a drive-by, check out the DMN's slideshow of the neighborhood.

Losing faith in DISD: J.L. Long leader questions Hinojosa's decisions

Following up on Norm's great post about the Texas Education Agency possibly overseeing DISD's finances, here's some thoughtful commentary from neighborhood resident Patrick Luna, a J.L. Long Middle School and Woodrow Wlson High School parent who is head of Long's Site-Based Decision Management (SBDM) committee.

Luna says what I've heard a lot of parents say the past few weeks: DISD shouldn't solely use a formula to make staffing decisions for individual schools and, if it does, Luna's faith in Supt. Michael Hinojosa will be shaken. Luna points out that Long's enrollment falls just below 1,000, which is a DISD formula cutoff that could cost Long up to 20 employees if the RIF is carried out the way DISD administrators have planned, while if Long had 13 more students, quite a few less people than 20 would be impacted. The problem with Luna's idea: If every school was evaluated individually, would DISD solve its budget problem before it went broke?

Here's what Patrick had to say: